CNN’s Fareed Zakaria’s feature: Immigration lessons for the U.S. from around the world – citing Canada’s Muslim Mayor Naheed Nenshi

-Excerpt- When Nahed Nenshi became the first Muslim mayor of a major Canadian city in 2010, he shattered Calgary’s “redneck” stereotype.

“When I was running for office, it was only people who were not from here who said ‘Whoa, is Calgary ready for a mayor like that?’” he says. “The people in Calgary just said, ‘Ah, it’s a kid from the East End. We know him.’”

Canada’s real challenge, says Nenshi, is ensuring the economic and social integration of immigrants once they are living in the country.

Calgary Mayor, Naheed Nenshi (image via calgaryconnex.com)

“It’s not about burkas and kirpans. It’s about saying to an engineer who was trained in Iran or China, how can we get you working as an engineer instead of a janitor as quickly as possible?” he says. “These are very serious challenges. And we haven’t got it right. But I would much prefer we focus our energies there rather than on these meaningless culture war discussions that occasionally crop up … because those don’t make a difference in people’s lives.”

The public and Parliament in Canada generally support continued immigration. “Immigration is unambiguously good for the economy. We know that those folks come, they invest here, they create jobs, they work here,” says Nenshi. “There’s not much of a policy debate on that in Canada.”

Naheed Nenshi on the surprising things that make Calgary work | Toronto Star

While the prime minister of Great Britain, the former president of France and the chancellor of Germany have all declared that in their context multiculturalism has failed, that’s not so in Canada, says Nenshi.

“I’m not here to question their reality. It’s their reality,” he says. “But I think it’s important for us Canadians, and particularly for Calgarians, to really tell a story loudly and proudly about a place where it works, where diversity works, where multiculturalism works, where pluralism works. It ain’t rocket science.” – Read at the source – CNN.

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